5 Ex-Dividend Stocks With Buy Ratings

These stocks, which go ex-dividend Thursday, are rated buy at TheStreet Ratings.

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CVS Caremark

The drugstore chain is scheduled to report first-quarter results on May 2. Analysts, on average, expect earnings of 63 cents a share on revenue of $30.31 billion.

"Sales of lower priced generic drugs are expected to increase faster than those of branded drugs," Trefis analysts wrote in an April 4 report. "This growth will be supported by the fact that patents for a large number of branded drugs will expire soon (For example Pfizer's Lipitor drug with $11 billion in annual sales lost patent protection in Nov 2011). In 2011 alone, $50 billion worth of drugs would lose patent protection, opening them to generics and driving higher margins. Generics are cheaper than the costlier patent-protected drugs and hence shall drive lower Revenue per Retail prescription. In 2012, we expect the conversion to generic drugs will account for almost a 4% reduction in overall prescription revenues for CVS Caremark, leading to a decline in Revenue per Retail Revenue per Retail prescription."

The food production and marketing company is scheduled to report second-quarter results on May 23. Analysts, on average, expect earnings of 42 cents a share on revenue of $2.05 billion.

"Management has put together a compelling argument for why investors are overestimating the company's exposure to volatility in the commodity markets and underestimating the potential for earnings growth off of 'peak' levels," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in an April 3 report. "But let's face it; these efforts have proven largely futile. The stock remains mired at P/E valuation below 9x."